Adaptation Decay
by Soulsilverlord
Summary: Editorial-like reviews of Tokusatsu and their American adaptions. Whether the writer or actor, why do some adaptations just suck in comparison to their sources? Find out here.
1. Pilot

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger vs. Power Rangers Samurai

Pilot: The Abusive King vs. Sticks and Stones

Oh boy do I have a bone to pick with you Mister Power Rangers. Ever since Saban retrieved the series from Disney, it has gone down drastically in quality. RPM was a great Power Ranger series and really shook it up from Jungle Fury and Operation Overdrive. Samurai looked promising and I was hoping it would live up to the high expectations of its source material, Shinkenger. I was thoroughly disappointed though. Power Rangers Samurai in its entirety is a washed down version of Shinkenger, dumbed down for American audiences.

One of my personal favorite Shinkenger episodes was episode six, The Abusive King, in which an Ayakashi who tells terrible truths about people can turn mental pain into physical pain. The Shinkengers are sent to deal with it and thoroughly get their asses handed to them. The same exact plot is used in Samurai, however there is a great difference in tone despite the extreme similarities. First off, the things the Ayakashi say are much more harsh then his Nighlok counterpart. The Ayakashi says things such as "leftover one", "father complex", "old hag", and "liar". These things are used to properly describe the negative qualities of the Shinkengers as we had seen in the previous episodes of the series. They are drastically different in the American adaption however with the Nighlok saying very needless things to the Rangers. Samurai's number one problem was the copy-and-paste format of the show. Literally, each episode uses the exact same plot of its Japanese counterpart. A part that makes this so unbearable is the fact that the acting in Samurai is just terrible in every way. Mike's actor, Hector David Jr., is the only one who seems to try and have fun with his role and does it quite well as the show goes on. Everyone else is absolutely terrible, each as dry and boring as Kevin is.

I'm not here to hate on Samurai and address my admiration of Shinkenger, being my favorite Sentai series of the Heisei era, but I am here to point out why this episode doesn't work. Sticks and Stones is the plain lesson of "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." It uses the exact same story, but the actors in Shinkenger make it feel much more than in Samurai. As the episode in Shinkenger progresses, we see Chiaki getting more fed up with her attitude. In Samurai there's really no build up in it. This can be linked back to the third episode of Shinkenger in which Chiaki's two friends are severely injured and this gives him the resolve to get stronger. This isn't seen as much in the Samurai counterpart. In fact, Mike's friends are completely fine. Kotoha is also seen as not very smart and clumsy in the initial episodes, but at this point in the show Emily is never addressed as such until this episode.

Finally, I want to bring up the blow up and talk between the Greens and Yellows. In Shinkenger, Chiaki blows up at Kotoha but does so in a very dick-ish tone, however he's doing this because he's angry. The anger building inside him because he is the weakest link, might I say "the leftover one". His issue is that he can't do anything as well as everyone else, along with being the second youngest. When he says these things to Kotoha he outright calls her stupid to her face. His own anger about being weak causes him to take it out on Kotoha. Eventually, this leads to them discussing why she is able to call herself stupid. Her older sister was supposed to be the original Shinken Yellow, but falls ill. Kotoha, who was mostly bullied as a young child, realized she mustn't cry or else her older sister, who was forced to give the title to her sister, would cry even worse. She goes on to say that it is true that she's dumb and slow, but she does so with a smile on her face. Chiaki reveals that her saying she's a failure isn't true. He calls her strong, but if she goes around calling herself a failure what would that make him? She's younger, but manages to always beat Chiaki. This eventually leads to the point where it was just building up anger within Chiaki. The two make up and leave to fight the monster-of-the-week. The musical cues used in these two scenes really make up feel for the two characters, along with the fact that the two do such a good job with the acting. Samurai is much of the same however, but lacks the touches that made the Shinkenger episode so strong. Mike doesn't really have a blow up like Chiaki. He only kind of confronts her about calling herself stupid. Whereas Chiaki calls Kotoha stupid to her face, Mike just wonders why she thinks that. Emily doesn't really have a self-revelation and later says that it was just old insecurities, whereas Kotoha clearly states herself as a stupid failure. The musical cues in Samurai are also just plain bad in comparison to Shinkenger's soundtrack so I'm not really addressing it except for the fact that the music just made the Shinkenger episode so much stronger. The endings are also very similar. Both Kotoha and Emily collapse at the end of the their respective episodes and are carried on the backs of respective Greens. Whereas we also lightly touch upon Takeru's lying nature, we also get a nice little moment between my OTP of this series, Chiaki and Kotoha for life. With Chiaki praising her for being amazing, with the musical cue in the back as they walk off with sunset inbound. Samurai kills the nature of the ending with all of them going to get ice cream. No musical cues, not any of the simple praises of Green to Yellow, Mike says she was awesome but it's done less well then Chiaki's version, and the Shinkengers get silent as the music plays the episode off, whereas the Samurai just excitedly get ice cream.

Most of the emotion of the Shinkenger episode is lost through adaption and it's really obvious, as I watched them back-to-back. The musical cues of Shinkenger really solidify this episode, while Samurai is just a broken copy of its source material. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Adaptation Decay and expect more soon.


	2. Episode 2

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger vs. Power Rangers Samurai

Episode 2: A Threefold Strife vs. Test of the Leader

Oh boy another episode decayed by Saban. First off, I skipped over talking about Juzo and Deker because I didn't feel like doing the episodes they came from in a review format. First, let me say that I don't hate Rick Medina in the slightest. I think he's a capable actor, as we saw in Wild Force, but here he's just kind of bad in all terms. It seems like he's trying too hard to copy how Mitsuru Karahashi acts in Shinkenger. Medina is probably one of the better actors in Samurai, but for now let's head on to the actual review.

The beginning of the Shinkenger and Samurai episodes is pretty much the same in formula. The Gedoshuu/Nighlok discuss the fact that the Shiba clan has and always will have the ability to seal Dokoku/Xandred away. Our lord of the dead has a bit of a tantrum; however the way it plays out in the script is very different. In Shinkenger, Dokoku simply allows all his rage to come out and his rage actually creates Nanashi, which causes them to rampage across the city. In Samurai he just summons them and tells them to go destroy because he's a little angry. Also notice the Asian people getting attacked in Samurai? It's almost as obvious as all of the random appearances of Kotaro in Saban's Masked Rider.

They Shinkengers/Rangers fight off the Nanashi/Moogers and only get an infinite amount of them. Eventually the foot soldiers stop fighting and all turn to attack Takeru/Jayden. They are put into this trance by Dokoku/Xandred who is continuously summoning them; anyone else notice the fact that Dokoku actually sounds threatening and Xandred sounds like an idiot? Dokoku openly is cursing ShinkenRed, and in all honesty does it in a really creepy voice. Whereas in Samurai we just keep hearing them chant "Red Ranger", which is really not that evil or creepy considering Xandred is not at all threatening. Anyways, Takeru/Jayden finishes the foot soldiers and they discuss whom the voice belonged to.

Back in the Sanzu River, Dokoku collapses, having drained all his energy, still cursing the Shiba clan. In Samurai, Xandred does the same but wants more 'medicine', because calling it sake would be too much for the fragile young children. Back on planet Earth, the Shinkengers and Jii-san discuss why Dokoku is targeting Takeru. It's revealed to them that Dokoku now knows that the Shiba clan uses a special sealing character to seal him away. The same occurs in Samurai world and in both versions we flashback to the sealing of Dokoku/Xandred.

In the Shinkenger version, which is a few seconds longer, we see the final battle between the previous Shinkengers and the Gedoshuu. We see the somewhat violent defeats of ShinkenYellow and Pink, later revealed to be a paraplegic due to her wounds. ShinkenGreen gets stabbed in the abdomen and ShinkenBlue gets shot several times with fire arrows. Finally, we see ShinkenRed, who is barely standing. Dokoku claims victory and proceeds to kill ShinkenRed. Using the ShodoPhone, ShinkenRed quickly seals away Dokoku using the hidden character. Finally, he also collapses, covered in blood. The musical cues used here a quite good, as per usual. It is very subtle and it mixes well with the defeat of the Shinkengers and the death of Red.

The Samurai version pretty much dumbs it down. It cuts out the more violent parts such as Green getting stabbed and Blue getting shot with arrows. It also cuts out the bloody hand of Red after his defeat also lacking the fact that in Shinkenger that he died. The music is meh and it really does cut out the emotion we're supposed to feel.

Returning to the boat, Shitari calls upon an Ayakashi who is supposedly the strongest of them all. Samurai does the exact same as its counterpart. Now, we start getting to the good stuff. In Shinkenger the Ayakashi actually sounds intimidating and doesn't say too much, aceepting the fact that he will go to fight. Samurai gives him a Scottish accent. No really, go check it out. The most feared Nighlok is a Scotsman. I'm sorry Japan.

Back in reality, the Shinkengers are training and discuss the fact that the Takeru's father was unable to properly use the seal and that Takeru himself cannot use it either, mourning the fact he can't end it all immediately. In Samurai, they discuss the same thing. Whereas in Shinkenger they say that he'll be able to master it because he is their Lord and getting stronger, in Samurai they say he'll do it because of destiny. Two thumbs up Samurai. Finally, they say that they finally understand why they've been trained to be Takeru's retainers, but Takeru blows up at them telling them to protect themselves. Jayden does the same, but with less emotion. Also we get a sneak peek of some secret plan in Shinkenger, but is left out in Samurai. Anyways, third act here we go.

The Shinkengers/Samurai go to where the big bad is and he calls out Takeru/Jayden. The fight with Takeru is a lot better, probably because the monster is mostly silent and isn't Scottish. The others fight the foot soldiers, but things don't look good for our Red hero. In both versions Takeru/Jayden is disarmed and about to be finished off when Ryunosuke/Kevin and Kotoha/Emily take he blow from the monster in order to protect their leader. When Ryunosuke and Kotoha deform notice the fact that they look beat up. They're clothes are torn and are bloodied up from battle. Mike and Emily, however, look fine and just get covered in dust. Takeru/Jayden cover up their teammates as the monster prepares to strike again. Green and Pink arrive to stand guard in front of our lead hero, but Juzo/Deker interrupts them. Juzo/Deker disarms Chiaki/Mike and Mako/Mia and wants to fight Red. However Red rearms himself and three fight in one epic battle royale. The Shinkenger versions works better however, as all we get is serious violin music and the sounds of the characters swords clashing along with their grunts. In Samurai, we get stock music and all of them making witty one-liners. In the end however, the big bad escapes when the three come to a stalemate. Juzo/Deker attacks Takeru/Jayden and disarms him. Juzo notices that he is not acting normally and attempts to kill Takeru, but misses nearly saying that next time he will kill him. Deker takes a slice and tells him that the battle must have taken too much out of him and then leaves. This leaves both teams in a state of confusion as they return to help their hurt members.

Back at their home, the Kuroko fix up Ryunosuke and Kotoha is placed in bed, apparently running a fever or something along those lines. Emily and Mike are just put in bed because they're fine and never get hurt because no one ever does in Power Rangers, do they? Except for Sky's father. SPD was awesome by the way. Jii-san asks if anyone had seen Takeru and it simply cuts to Jii running around calling for his lord and Takeru silently leaving. In Samurai it cuts to Jayden leaving the Shiba House and saying that he can't endanger them anymore.

Again, the Shinkenger is decayed to Samurai. The Shinkenger music is spot on as per usual, but the Samurai music is just pulled out of their asses. The fact that they never show any blood or somewhat violence irritates me because it makes the assumption that American kids will be upset by it. Welcome to life kids, they show this in Japan and they're not upset. The last part is also much more powerful in Shinkenger. The fact that we see Jii-san running outside and calling for Takeru, who just silently leaves, is more powerful than Mentor Ji calling for Jayden twice and Jayden leaving with a dialogue. Jii-san is a character constantly beat on, which I will take a closer look in the Decade crossover. Overall Shinkenger wins, see you next time in the Golden era.


End file.
